A conveyor roller is mounted on a shaft which traditionally is hexagonal in cross-section. The simplest method of mounting a roller shaft to a conveyor frame is to form a mounting aperture such as a slot or a hexagonal hole in the frame which will receive the shaft. It is also traditional to position the hex shaft in the mounting aperture with the points of the shaft facing up and down, although it is known that in some constructions the points of the shaft face side-to-side.
The shaft is generally loose in the mounting aperture and vibration of the roller causes the shaft to bounce, causing noise and wear on both the shaft and the aperture. Over time, the wear from shaft vibration results in enlargement of the mounting aperture, creating an even looser fit between the shaft and the frame and generating even more noise. Eventually, the shaft vibration causes the frame to cut through the roller shaft, resulting in the roller dropping out of the frame.
It would accordingly be desirable to modify the mounting of a roller shaft in a conveyor frame to minimize the vibration of the shaft in the frame and thereby lessen the noise which is produced and the wear which occurs on both the shaft and the frame.